A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF KNOWN FOOD-POISONING STAPHYLOCOCCI AND RELATED VARIETIES

Abstract

A physiol. study has been conducted on 114 staphylococci, including 22 strains that were known to produce enterotoxin as evidenced by feeding tests with rhesus monkeys. Based on the 29 physiol. tests employed, the entero-toxigenic strains comprised an extremely homogeneous group. All toxigenic cultures were coagulase-positive and appeared to be identical with all of the other coagulase-positive strains, which included 8 cultures that failed to give evidence of enterotoxin production. These studies indicate that most, if not all, entero-toxigenic staphylococci are members of the coagulase-positive group, but they do not preclude the possibility that some vars. of coagulase-negative staphylococci might also be associated with food poisoning.